The Truth Behind the 'Cala Boca GalvÃ£o' Campaign

grrlscientist — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:59:36 +0000

tags: Cala Boca GalvÃ£o, hoax, fraud, prank, humor, funny, satire, meme, World Cup football 2010, Brasil, Rede Globo, GalvÃ£o Bueno, Carlos Eduardo dos Santos GalvÃ£o Bueno, streaming video

Anatomy of an elaborate hoax: If you know anything about birds, then you knew immediately that none of the parrots portrayed in these videos are known as the "GalvÃ£o", nor are (most of them) endangered, nor are their feathers used in any sort of Brazilian celebration.

If you do have even a rudimentary knowledge of Portuguese, then you know that Cala Boca GalvÃ£o actually means "shut your mouth, GalvÃ£o!" Who the heck is GalvÃ£o? A little googling reveals that he is Carlos Eduardo dos Santos GalvÃ£o Bueno -- more commonly known as GalvÃ£o Bueno, the best-known sports announcer in Brazil. Apparently, Brazilians hate him because he spews clichÃ©s and melodrama -- if he can be understood at all -- when making play-by-play commentary about sporting events. Because GalvÃ£o is so annoying, he has been compared to a vuvuzela, and his commentary often inspires Brazilians to react the same way: muting the sound on their TVs.

So annoying are GalvÃ£o's spewings during sports events that the phrase Cala Boca GalvÃ£o became Twitter's top trending topic recently. Of course, the sudden appearance of this phrase at the very top of Twitter's list of trending topics led to speculation among nonspeakers of Portuguese about what it could possibly mean. That in turn led some Brazilians to offer elaborate and entirely fictional explanations, the most popular of which was that the phrase actually means "Save the GalvÃ£o," a supposedly endangered species of parrot that can only be saved by a Twitter campaign.

On Sunday, a hoax video was uploaded on YouTube imploring the world to help save the GalvÃ£o birds from extinction -- by "retweeting" the phrase "Cala Boca GalvÃ£o" on Twitter, which supposedly resulted in a donation of 10 cents towards the conservation of these parrots. On the other hand, the campaign seems to be working -- the video has been watched more than 200,000 times and not one GalvÃ£o has died:

But more hoax Cala Boca GalvÃ£o videos have also been uploaded to YouTube. Here is another video in support of the GalvÃ£o, but depicting a completely different species of parrot -- this is an Old World parrot species endemic to New Guinea, which you should know is an island located in the south Pacific Ocean. I have kept and bred this species myself. The species? The Dusky Lory, Pseudeos fuscata:

No, Dusky Lories are not endangered.

Here is yet another video, this time depicting a seriously endangered species of parrot endemic to parts of Brazil, the Little Blue (Spix's) Macaw, Cyanopsitta spixii, a parrot that is now extinct in the wild. This video includes footage of the last known wild specimen, a male that was paired with a female Blue-winged (Illiger's) Macaw, Primolius maracana (the green bird):

The last wild male Spix's Macaw, which lived in northeastern Brazil, disappeared in 2000 when he was roughly 15 years old, and has not been seen since, thereby making this species extinct in the wild (although there are roughly 70 individuals in captive breeding programs, so the species still clings to life).

grrlscientist Sun, 06/20/2010 - 23:59

Estragou a brincadeira

oh, don't worry; i've only ruined the joke for the three people who actually read my blog.

I wonder how much of this stuff gets twittered around only rising to the surface for analysis if it gets twittered enough.

estragou a brincadeira (2)

aw, i'm sorry, catarina! it looks like my three fans (two of you are brazilian, too, wow) are now mad that i ruined the prank! well, please do accept my apologies; this was my chance to talk about birds to you once again. i find such opportunities irresistible.

Estragou a brincadeira (3) =/

CALA A BOCA GALVÃO! americans... dont screw it up, Ã© muito engraÃ§ado!

And then there is the new Lady Gaga song: Cala Boca GalvÃ£o

Hitler, who sticks his nose into everything, reacts to CALA BOCA GALVAO

Today a coworker here in Los Angeles asked me what Cala Boca GalvÃ£o was. That was really funny! (By the way, I guess this blog has about 8 fans, not 3. Maybe all of us are Brazilians...)

Is Chico Xavier involved too?

lol

That's reallllllllllly funny!!!! hahahaha

We are a very, creative people....

Estragou a brincadeira (4)

I support the campaign!